While the Women’s World Cup might have just come to an end, with England’s Lionesses having made history with a first-ever WWC final, it is just 356 days until the next Olympic champions will be decided in Paris.
Sixteen teams will compete in the men’s competition, with 12 due to take the field in the women’s and qualifying is already well underway, with some nations having already booked their tickets to France.
The host nation automatically gets a berth in both competitions, but the rest are up for grabs, with each continental organisation gets a certain number of slots – here’s how it works.
How do you qualify?
Team GB have twice competed in women’s football at the Olympics, making their debut at London 2012 as hosts before qualifying for Tokyo 2020.
Tickets to Tokyo were secured thanks to England’s fourth place finish at the 2019 World Cup, making them one of the top three ranked European teams at the tournament.
However, the qualifying system changed ahead of Paris 2024 meaning England’s run to the final has not secured Team GB’s place next summer.
Instead, it will be down to results in the 2023-24 UEFA Nations League where the top two European sides will qualify for Paris, France having already secured their spot at the Games as host nation.
England, Scotland, and Wales are all in top division, League A, with teams split into four groups of four and the winner of each progressing to the semi-finals.
The winner of those semi-finals will secure the qualification for Paris; however it is only England’s results that will count towards Olympic qualification, as the nominated qualifying home nation for Team GB.
Group stage matches are set to take place between September and December 2023, before the top four teams will contest the semi-finals and final in February 2024.
England are in Group A alongside the Netherlands, Belgium, and Scotland with the Lionesses welcoming Scotland to the Stadium of Light in Sunderland for their first match on 22 September before travelling to Utrecht to face the Netherlands four days later.
Belgium then travel to Leicester to face England at the end of October, before the teams play the reverse fixture on Hallowe’en in Leuven.
The group stage comes to an end in December, as England host the Netherlands on the first of the month before travelling to the iconic Hampden Park to play Scotland.
Who has already qualified?
Alongside hosts France, USA, Brazil, and Colombia have all secured their places for the 2024 Games.
The US, who suffered a shock exit from the 2023 Women’s World Cup at the hands of current Olympic silver medallists Sweden, sealed their place all the way back in July 2022 as they won the Concacaf W Championship.
Legendary striker Alex Morgan’s late penalty helped them overcome reigning Olympic champions Canada in the final.
Canada, fresh from their own early exit at the World Cup, face a two-legged play-off against Jamaica in September with the first leg taking place in Kingston before the team's head to Toronto.
Colombia and Brazil are the other two confirmed names courtesy of their run to the final of the 2022 Copa America Femenina.
Brazil edged the final 1-0 thanks to Debinha’s first-half penalty, but both sides were already assured of their Olympic spots.
It means there are limited spots left available, with Asia set to hand out their two spots at a specific qualifying tournament in February, while Oceania’s one spot will be decided in March.
The final places handed out will be the two African berths, which will be decided at their qualifying tournament in April.
Sportsbeat 2023